Concern in New Caledonia as number of dengue fever cases passes 1,000
Updated
The number of cases of denge fever reported in New Caledonia this year has already exceeded one-thousand with health authorities saying the mosquito-borne infection is spreading at an alarming rate. More than half the cases have been reported in the last two weeks alone, forcing both local authorities and the French government to resort to new measures of prevention and control.
presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Director of New Caledonia's sanitary and social affairs, Jean Paul Grangeon; spokeswoman for the French High Commission in New Caledonia, Michele Lajus; General-manager of Tourism New Caledonia, Patrick Moisan
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HOFMAN: Just six weeks into 2009 the number of dengue fever cases reported in New Caledonia is close to exceeding the total number recorded last year.
In January there were over 480 cases. This month that figure is likely to double, with close to 550 cases reported so far.
In all, the total number of cases has reached 1,027 - just a few dozen cases short of last year’s total of 1,100.
Health authorities say the unusually hot and humid weather of the last few weeks has created ideal breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
The director of the country's sanitary and social, Jean Paul Grangeon, says the re-emergence of stereotype four dengue fever after a 20 year absence is also creating additional problems:
GRANGEON: We're have got nearly 60 new cases of dengue a day now. Its dengue type 4 and the population is not immunised at all, because the last dengue 4 outbreak occurred about 20 years ago in New Caledonia. There is no major difference between all those types, but we know when the patient got a new dengue case, you see the other still type one principle last ....?? is to a type 4 now, he may have more complications than if it was the first time he ever got dengue.
A number of other countries in the region have also been affected by the outbreak.
Tropical depressions have caused heavy downpours and flooding to places like Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, leading to a surge in waterborne diseases, including dengue fever.
However, travel between the Pacific island nations has also facilitated the spread of the disease.
Last month, French Polynesia detected its first cases of stereotype 4 dengue fever in 30 years in two people who had recently travelled to New Caledonia.
Wallis and Futuna has also reported several cases in the last few weeks and many are thought to have come from New Caledonia, where over 16-thousand people from the islands live and work.
Other dengue outbreaks have been reported in Palau, Kiribati, Samoa, American Samoa and the Cook Islands.
Mr Grangeon says they're doing all they can considering the circumstances.
GRANGEON: We are doing a lot of vectorial control actions, like pulverisation of insecticide and information among the population to make sure they destroy larvae sites.
HOFMAN: But unfortunately this to date hasn't worked?
GRANGEON: Well . . . all the actions that have been done, slow down the outbreak. But well, we had all those imported cases from different countries, different Pacific Island countries, that split up all in different areas so it was very hard to control all the different cases.
HOFMAN: The scale of the epidemic has prompted the French government to offer 212-thousand US dollars to help step up the fight against dengue fever.
The French High Commission has despatched a locally-based delegation to the country's three provinces and they will provide France with a list of their most urgent needs.
Michele Lajus from the High Commission says the financial package will be used to fund medical equipment and awareness campaigns:
LAJUS: The health department in Paris decided to help New Caledonia. First of all in joining the health commissioner to help the locals to inform about the disease and secondly, France has been sending a financial package to help the different authorities in buying materials, equipment to fight against the disease.
HOFMAN: According to representatives of the country's tourism board in Noumea, New Zealand and Australia tourists, have not been affected by the outbreak.
They say they are satisfied that visitors are being provided with adequate information on how to protect themselves from dengue both at the airport and by local authorities.
However, the general-manager of Tourism New Caledonia, Patrick Moisan says he is concerned about what might happen if the epidemic isn't brought under control soon, but says its unlikely to impact on the industry:
MOISAN: We cannot forget about this situation but on the other hand, New Caledonia being a French territory, is offering medical infrastructure, an organisation and system which is by far certainly one of the very best in the region. I mean the tourists by a large majority are coming and staying in large and modern hotels in Noumea where the problem doesn't exist. I mean our hotels and their hygiene and cleanliness do help to avoid this problem in the region or in the place where the tourists comes.
